It probably speaks volumes that I don't find this too egregious. My only question is why they couldn't have set these pods up in a vacant office area instead of in the aisles? It can't be good to sleep among all the fan noise.

If we die we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our god-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis, only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men.

On the dangers and importance of the mission of going to the moon in "Gemini : A Personal Account of Man's Venture Into Space (1968) by Virgil I. Grissom

CanarDuck writes: Tony Blair wrote a column published in the Sunday Times in which he announces new anti-terror laws reinforcing the powers of the police. This comes mere weeks before Blair will step down from his position as UK prime minister.
From the piece: "[The current legislation is] much weaker than we wanted, perpetually diluted by opposition amendments, constantly attacked on civil liberty grounds.[...]
We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect, even if a foreign national, first.
I happen to believe this is misguided and wrong."

An anonymous reader writes: The San Francisco Chronicle has published a multi-perspective article/editorial on the H-1B Visa debate. Not mentioned in the article is how large corporations routinely dodge paying taxes, an action that can lead to under-funded schools, which in turn reduces the native-born qualified workforce, which in turn creates a need for immigrant workers. We can get right to the heart of the matter now and ask: is the US government obligated to serve the American people or to serve business? Discuss please.

An anonymous reader writes: For some, Rails is hyper productive and for others Ruby is a toy. Rails also has a reputation as unproven with limited scalability. Unlike the C and Java languages, Ruby is interpreted, with all of the inherent performance handicaps. This article explores the Ruby caching strategies such as caching static content, model caching, page caching, action caching, and others that can really speed things up. In many circumstances. there are caching techniques available to increase Ruby on Rails application performance.

ATMD writes: "The BBC is reporting that Wal-Mart is to start selling low-end Dell machines in stores in the USA, Cananda and Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, few further details are given at the moment. Whatever happened to "you can't buy Dell in the shops"?"

An anonymous reader writes: A startup will soon launch 'a kind of holy software grail,' according to an article at LinuxDevices. The dual-licensed (one of which is GPL) technology is claimed to enable more or less normal Linux applications to run — without requiring recompilation — under Windows, Mac, or Linux, with a look and feel native to each. 'As with Java, Lina users will first install a VM specific to their platform, after which they can run binaries compiled not for their particular OS, but for the VM, which aims to hide OS-specific characteristics from the application. Lina comprises a platform-specific application that virtualizes the host PC's x86 processor... A lightly modified Linux kernel (2.6.19, for now) runs on top of the VM. Under the Linux kernel is a filesystem with standard Linux libraries modified to map resources such as library, filesystem, and system calls to analogous resources on the host platform.' Further details, including an entertaining video or two are at OpenLina.com

The Circle of Lost Hackers writes: "Good news everyone: PHRACK is back ! From the introduction "As long as there is technology,
there will be hackers. As long as there are hackers, there will be PHRACK magazine. We look forward to the next 20 years".
This is how the PHRACK63 Introduction was ending, telling everybody that the Staff would have changed and to expect a relea
se sometimes in 2006/2007. This is that release. This is the new staff.

Introduction by The Circle of Lost Hackers
Phrack Prophile of the new editors by The Circle of Lost Hackers
Phrack World News by The Circle of Lost Hackers
A brief history of the Underground scene by The Circle of Lost Hackers
Hijacking RDS TMC traffic information signal by lcars & danbia
Attacking the Core: Kernel Exploitation Notes by twiz & sgrakkyu
The revolution will be on YouTube by gladio
Automated vulnerability auditing in machine code by Tyler Durden
The use of set_head to defeat the wilderness by g463
Cryptanalysis of DPA-128 by sysk
Mac OS X Wars — A XNU Hope by nemo
Hacking deeper in the system by ankhara
The art of exploitation: Autopsy of cvsxpl by Ac1dB1tch3z
Know your enemy: Facing the cops by Lance
Remote blind TCP/IP spoofing by Lkm
Hacking your brain: The projection of consciousness by keptune
International scenes by Various"

An anonymous reader writes: As the load on an application increases, the bottlenecks in the underlying infrastructure become more apparent in the form of slow response to user requests. This article discusses many of the server configuration items that can make or break an application's performance and focuses on steps you can take to optimize Apache and PHP.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he proposed comprehensive legislation to Congress Monday against copyright thieves, including raising the maximum penalty to life imprisonment and seizing the illicit profits of offenders.

Nick Ferrel at the Inquirer confirms the reports and adds a few interesting insights of his own.
Good to know RIAA is a vital part of the US Government. I must have been asleep when my Government & Law professor glossed over that one."

Brethil writes: According to LaRepubblica.it Torino's atheneum managed get a stable wireless link between Capanna Margherita (Europe's highest shelter, 4556m) and Pian Cavallaro, 300 Km far away.
To achieve this they used old "386" computers running Linux and directional antennas.
The link speed was about 20 Mb/sec and it was used to make broadband connection available to the shelter's guests and to send a webcam's photos to the iXem Laboratory at Torino's Polytechnic.

dcrockerjr writes: After graphics and sound rendering what is the biggest gaming processor hog: AI & path finding.
Enter Nvidia's announcement that their graphics cards can be used as an extra processor when not used for graphics.
Consider that Gnu-Linux is already used in high end multi-processor supercomputers and blades, and has a lead over windows in making use of extra processors.
Add a motherboard manufacturer thats willing to put around 7 graphics card slots on a board.
Now add an open source project for AI & path finding acceleration as a GPLv3 alternative to CUDA.
Hence: Gnu-Linux THE gaming OS.
Nvidia may also find themselves in competition with creative for audio acceleration.
In the other corner, as rig prices rise, IBM or Sun could partner with AMD to bring low end blades to gamers.
Imagine games like Starcraft with no unit limit... less scripted more responsive games...
Links:
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;99052718 6;fp;16;fpid;0http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1582455.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDAhttp://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda.html

sterlingda writes: "John Kanzius and his associate Charlie Rutkowski have found a way to create energy by burning salt water with the same radio wave machine they are using to kill cancer cells. Kanzius and Rutkowski were testing their external radio-wave generator to see if it could desalinate salt water, and it ignited. A university chemist determined that the process is generating hydrogen. While the phenomenon is interesting, it is not yet practical for energy generation inasmuch as more energy is consumed by the radio frequency device than is produced for burning.
[memo do be deleted: the wiki server should be able to handle slashdotted bandwidth]"